Iran "successfully" launches ballistic missile

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani had vowed to strengthen his country's military and ballistic capabilities in a live speech on state TV.

Friday's military parade was to mark the anniversary of the start of the Iran-Iraq War in 1988; as Tasnim reports, the missile is named for a city in Iran's southwest that was attacked in that conflict.

"We will promote our defensive and military power as much as we deem necessary", Rouhani told a military parade.

During his first address to the United Nations, Trump on Tuesday referred to Iran as a "corrupt dictatorship" that exports "violence, bloodshed and chaos".

Criticism by the Donald Trump administration of a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and major powers, including the United States, has focused heavily on Tehran's continuing missile programme.

Friday's reported missiletest is the latest in a series of launches. "We will not seek permission from anyone to defend our country", Rouhani said in a speech broadcast on state television.

That range is enough to strike major cities in Iran's regional rivals, such as Jerusalem and Tel Aviv in Israel and Medina and Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, as well as the numerous USA military bases in Afghanistan, Bahrain, Israel, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

On Friday night Iran released footage of the successful test-launch of its new ballistic missile, called Khorramshahr, with a range of 2,000 kilometers.

"By promising to step up Iran's ballistic-missile program, Rouhani seeks to gain support from Iranian hard-liners who have always been critical of the nuclear deal, and who have repeatedly accused him of being soft in global relations, " Vakil said. "Iran is conducting a campaign of conquest across the Middle East and Iran is developing ballistic missiles to threaten the entire world".

It was mainly a procedural move, but it was significant since reimposing nuclear-related sanctions could lead Iran to end its compliance with the deal and revert back to rapid uranium enrichment - something it's threatened to do if the United States reneges.

Iran maintains that testing non-nuclear ballistic missiles is not a violation of the JCPOA. "We will strengthen our missile capabilities".

Trump on Wednesday said he had made his decision, but was not yet ready to reveal it.

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